


Drabble Nights

by emeralddarkness



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/M, Oneshot, Oneshot collection, Some are light, all fics are 100-110 words, because I do my best to use the prompts in unexpected ways more often than not, check individual drabbles for applicable warnings, honestly it's a real grab bag, some are AU, some are canon universe, some are dark, some are fluff, the prompts are themed but that will not always matter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:28:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29797455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emeralddarkness/pseuds/emeralddarkness
Summary: A diverse series of drabbles, written for Discord Drabble Night!
Relationships: Sesshoumaru/Kagome
Kudos: 2





	1. Brush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> February theme: Touch

There had been something unbearably unfair about the way that Sesshoumaru's hair never seemed to tangle. It fell to his hips like heavy silk, soft and smooth and slick and always _perfectly_ clean and white.

That was what made seeing him like this so shocking.

Kagome’s heart hurt as she looked at the youkai lord, still unconscious from his long confinement under the shrine. His hair was stiff and dirty, gray with filth. It had _moss_ growing in it. He shouldn’t have to stay like this. So, while he still slept, she went and found a brush, and carefully began.


	2. Grip

“I am faster,” he'd said when she started to run, and of _course_ he was, but despite all that time riding on Inuyasha’s back, all the times she'd seen Sesshoumaru move, despite knowing how he arrived to and departed from an area, Kagome still hadn’t realized what she’d been agreeing to. She pressed her face to his chest to keep from looking down. Humans were _not_ meant to be at this altitude, not without some kind of aircraft.

His arm was firm and strong around her, and it was just as well, because she'd been gripping his collar so tightly that she could no longer feel her fingers.


	3. Strike

Sesshoumaru sighed. “Kagome, what is this supposed to be?”

“Oh?” she asked, and there was so much heavy sweetness in her tone that he pulled up short. “Is something _wrong_?”

“Hn,” he said carefully, deciding to wait and see what she was upset about rather than provoke her. After half a minute she spoke again.

“You left me here _alone_ last night and so I,” said loftily, “am on strike for better working conditions.”

This explained a great deal.

“Miko-”

“ _Uh-huh_.”

He pulled her around to face him. “As I was _saying_ , the reservations are for tonight.”

She blinked. “Oh.”


	4. Trail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dark; offscreen character death

She trailed behind him like a ghost, pale and tear-scented. “Tenseiga can’t bring them back,” he’d said when she’d first taken to shadowing him. She’d looked up at him with eyes full of the dead, and he wondered if she was trying to join them.

“Yes,” she whispered, “No bodies probably makes that hard, right?”

He didn’t answer; it was enough.

“Why do you follow me?” he asked later, and she laughed like she was in pain.

“He killed your friends too, right? I hoped you’d help me kill him. I don’t think either of us can do it alone.”


	5. Press

On a list of places Kagome might have expected to find evidence of youkai, the checkout counter at the corner convenience store would have been pretty low. She’d swung by in between classes to buy something, maybe some rice balls, maybe a katsu bowl or some ramen if she decided she could spare the time to sit down and eat it. Instead she’d found a magazine rack, and on the cover a man who was impossibly pale, staring across the bags of chips and canned drinks with deep amber eyes.

_No way._

Kagome promptly forgot about getting lunch.

_He’s alive??_


	6. Firm

Sesshoumaru was and always had been unwavering. “Our symbol is the moon,” his mother told him when he was only a pup. She lifted an elegant finger to his forehead, brushing aside his bangs. “It is a destiny. We were not born to crawl through the mud.”

So he held himself cold and distant. The miko’s eyes had narrowed a little when she heard, looking thoughtful. “But even the moon changes,” she said softly. “And it’s not so distant. Humans have gone to the moon, or they will anyway.”

He looked at her and wondered if it was weakness, if he allowed _her_ to reach _him_.


	7. Twitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dark, off screen character death _and_ on screen character death

“Please come back,” she whispered. “I know you now, this isn’t you.”

They’d fought Naraku together, until a blast of evil hit Sesshoumaru and dropped him to his knees, and when he looked up his eyes were cold, which was nothing new, but also cruel, which _was_.

He was too good at killing. Her friends blood dripped down his claws.

“You can still save everyone,” she begged. He laughed coldly, and even though it was his voice it wasn’t _him_ , then leapt towards her like a burst of moonlight.

Her fingers twitched.

The arrow flew.

Kagome fell to her knees and wept.


	8. Stroke

Kagome knew that keeping tight control on powerful youkai was necessary for peace; like everyone else she’d learned how they had spread evil and war when allowed to. She still didn’t like it. That was what had made her seek out this career; her reiki was why she’d been hired.

The new case was supposedly trouble, but she smiled when she finally saw all the white fur – he might be _much_ bigger, but it reminded her of a friend. The growl, low and dark behind the muzzle, heightened the impression. She walked closer fearlessly and reached out to stroke the side of his paw.

“I’m here to help.”


	9. Handle

He is ghost-white, paper white, with yellow amber candle flame eyes that seem to glow from within, and so perfect in his alienness that she could think he wasn’t real. He might be a white marble statue, were it not for the shift of his clothing and the way the wind caught at strands of his hair.

She always forgets until she sees them standing together just how profoundly human Inuyasha seems, when compared to his brother. His perfection and inhumanity makes him a mystery. She can never get a handle on it; it’s intimidating to even try.

Kagome has never been able to do ‘intimidated’ for long.


	10. Scratch/Soothe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double prompt means double drabble! They can be read individually, or as bookends.

Scratch

-

She looked at him and wondered if he planned to kill her. It seemed like it.

"You are so vulnerable on your own." His voice was arrogant, but so soft that it almost sounded merciful. "If you plan to blunder about alone, it would be better to let me end it quickly." Then, before she could process the words, he lept forward too quickly to see, and his hand was at her throat, claws scratching her skin. Kagome shrieked as her inner light flared. In front of her he snarled as he was thrown back, the skin of his palm broken and bleeding.

___

Soothe

-

Kagome would tease him about it, occasionally. "Remember how you tried to kill me the first time that we met?"

Sesshoumaru, wearing an expression of long suffering patience, would dart close and catch her hand and hold it gently. "I do."

"Betcha wish you had sometimes," she would perhaps whisper, mischief sparkling in her voice, whenever she dragged him off on some harebrained scheme that he would much rather avoid. He would smile at the words, and pull her close by her wrist and then gently trace the curve of her face, looking down into her storm colored eyes.

"Never."


	11. Stagger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> March prompt theme: Fight

Whenever they’d seen him before Sesshoumaru moved as though in a dance, graceful and controlled. There was nothing graceful in him now as he fell from the sky, crumpling as he hit the ground. He seemed dead, until he struggled to his feet and staggered drunkenly forward for a few steps before falling again.

Kagome had watched, frozen, until he fell a second time. That unfroze her, and she grabbed her first aid kit and ran to him. He was unconscious, breath shallow and coated in a thin sheen of sweat, and the cause worried her almost as much as his condition. What could do this to a _daiyoukai?_


	12. Barrier

A furious demon was just behind her, and the snarling was fearsome to hear. Kagome wasn’t bothered.

"When this one is free you shall regret-"

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed, and leaned back on her hands to watch the clouds go by. "Inuyasha said pretty much the same thing when it was him in there."

A shocked, offended silence immediately replaced the threats, and Kagome fought back a grin.

"Look," she finally said. "I'm not letting you out until tomorrow night, okay? You should be back to full strength by then, but I won't let you run off and get yourself killed."


	13. Taunt

His lips almost brushed hers, and one clawed fingertip trailed lazily up the vein in her neck. She knew he could twitch that claw and slit her throat, but that didn't seem as important as how close his mouth was.

He smelled like flowers.

It wasn’t fair that he should smell as pretty as he looked. The something sharp and bitter was buried in the sweetness didn’t even help; the edge of danger was intoxicating. _Don’t fall for this,_ she thought, a little desperate, but wondered what it would be like to kiss him.

Then he pulled back, smug, and lifted a mocking brow. Kagome gasped in outrage.


	14. Frenzy

Things had gone downhill when Tetsusaiga was broken, and they continued downhill after, as Inuyasha’s demonic blood flickered to the surface. Kagome’s breath was unsteady as she took a few steps back – she was afraid of him, she was afraid for him. He always made her feel safe, before this, but now….

His claws and fangs were so much longer than normal, and smeared in blood, and he was watching her like a predator. In her very bones she felt like prey. The _relief_ she felt when Sesshoumaru landed lightly between them took her by surprise. He was at least as dangerous, but… she trusted him to protect them.


	15. Recoil

In a moment of pure instinct he recoiled the first time he touched her, as her holy power surged past her skin. It tried to swell around him, burning like acid, and for just a moment the edges of his control frayed in the face of the danger, and his fangs grew long and his eyes grew red.

This girl – mortal and to all rights beneath his notice – stood trembling in front of him, eyes wide with shock, as he brought his power under control again, and shrank again to his human form.

“What are you?” she squeaked.

“I might ask that of you.”


	16. Lash

The Faery wood was not a place that the unwary should go, but when Kagome had been young she’d found a way in. That was when she’d first found the man, spelled to sleep in a sealed glass coffin, thick white lashes lying like snowflakes against his cheeks. She’d decided, as she looked at him, that he was a prince. _Her_ prince, she’d decided later.

His face was lovely; she wished she could see his eyes. She returned again and again, and would lay on top of the coffin and tell him her dreams and secrets. Inside his enchanted sleep, he heard every word.


	17. Surge

Kagome stepped into the surging waves, and felt dumb. It was cold and foggy, and the impulsive three hour drive here suddenly seemed like a waste of time. She stared at the sea, feeling tired. It was as she stood that the singing began, lovely and unearthly. It took a moment to realize that it was coming from in front of her.

Cautiously she waded forward until she was submerged to her waist, then forced herself to stop. This was not a good idea, but as she turned she felt hands grab her thighs and _pull_. She shrieked as she was yanked down. Underwater, she saw amused liquid golden eyes.


	18. Fend

The longer that they traveled together, the more Kagome realized - she knew less about how to fend for herself than Rin did. The realization was humiliating, but the younger girl didn’t rub it in, as though anyone might have almost eaten poison berries. After stopping Kagome from accidentally killing herself, Rin had tied her kimono up around her knees and waded out into a pond, where she managed to catch a fish barehanded.

Kagome was annoyed, and impressed, and envious, and proud, and felt utterly useless.

“She’s… capable,” she’d said to Sesshoumaru, later. “More than me.”

He’d looked down, eyes lingering on hers. “Perhaps in different ways.”


	19. Thrust

Kagome thrust the staff sharply into Sesshoumaru’s ribcage then promptly dropped the weapon, hands flying to her mouth. Sesshoumaru looked at her, and then, quite deliberately, down at it.

“Your weapon,” he said, as patiently as he could, “will do you no good if you cannot keep your hands on it, miko.”

“I don’t like hitting people!” she cried. “I thought you were supposed to _block_ that!” His expression immediately became arrogantly disdainful, and she wondered how saying that could offend him if hitting him apparently didn’t.

“Do you suppose you could actually hurt _this_ Sesshoumaru?”

“Isn’t that the point of teaching all this to me??”


	20. Exposed/Guarded

Exposed  
-  
She lived heart first, vulnerability to vulnerability, and a part of him marveled at it. She seemed as though the world could reach out to touch her with cruelty and she would fall before it, but she never did. She was like a war fan with steel blades wrapped in silk – at a glance you would think she would burn away in an instant, but trying it only exposed the weapon within.

It was when she was most exposed that she was strongest, and he realized it again as she looked at him.

She waited before him, raw and trembling. “Please,” she begged, and he acquiesced.

-  
Guarded  
-  
He’d always held himself distant, as cool and untouchable as the moon. It wasn’t until later, when she started to know him, that she’d truly seen how much he hid.

“You care a lot more than you let people know, don’t you?” she’d asked as he carefully pulled free the flowers that Rin had braided into his hair earlier. He pretended to ignore her, and she smiled a little, then moved a little closer. “Here, let me help with that.” She slid her hands into his hair without thinking of the intimacy, and might never have considered it if not for the catch in his breath as she did.


End file.
